FUTURE NOW FOR PADRES’ NEW OWNERS

Season’s final weeks must be used to set tone for franchise

You won’t be hearing anything from the Padres’ new owners for the next nine days.

We have entered a time of silence — not much unlike the radio silence of a space vehicle as it re-enters the atmosphere.

Things are still happening at breakneck speeds, but no one is going to talk about it.

In a perfect scenario, the Padres’ new ownership group — led by the heirs of baseball’s O’Malley dynasty, local businessman Ron Fowler and professional golfer Phil Mickelson — will receive the approval of 75 percent of the other 29 baseball owners Aug. 16 during the quarterly owners meetings in Denver.

Such swift approval would give the Padres’ new owners seven weeks to contemplate changes before the season ends.

Probably more than changes, the last seven weeks of the season might give the owners a chance to establish a tone for the future.

Padres fans haven’t been happy for quite some time. Even the unexpected — and unsuccessful — bid for the National League West title in 2010 didn’t excite the masses.

Padres fans feel they’ve been lied to and shortchanged since Petco Park opened in 2004. And the layaway sale of the Padres in 2009 by John Moores to Jeff Moorad’s group did nothing to calm the masses.

Moores slashed the payroll after the 2008 season as he decided to sell. As Moorad diverted funds from other areas to build his war chest to complete the purchase of the Padres, payroll shrunk further and only recently began to expand in small increments.

Fans came to believe — usually correctly — that any Padre of merit would be traded or allowed to leave as a free agent rather than get a just contract from the Padres. Prime example: Adrian Gonzalez.

The new owners have already taken steps to ease that fear. Slugging left fielder Carlos Quentin and closer Huston Street didn’t have their contracts extended late last month in a vacuum. The new owners signed off on both contracts.

In the words of Padres General Manager Josh Byrnes — who has the backing of the new owners — those extensions and the decision not to trade third baseman Chase Headley at the deadline “sent a message.”

The “Padre way” could be getting altered.

While it’s highly unlikely the Padres will become players in the bidding for major free agents, decisions might be made more with the eye on the won-loss column than the bottom line.

Peter Seidler, the spokesperson for the new ownership group, talked Monday night about the responsibility his group feels to the fans and San Diego. “We’re going to be active owners,” he said. “We hear the fans.”

So, how do you win over the fans?

Turning the “future” into “now” is one way. Finding a way to end the impasse between Fox Sports San Diego and the distribution outlets that have kept 42 percent of the county in the dark when it comes to Padres games on television is another. And address other issues in a timely and straightforward fashion.

Do you move in the fences at Petco Park? Do you install a new video board rather than talk about it? Do you work some brown-and-mustard back into the uniforms?

Padres fans want to see action more than studies and promises.

Oh, and they want to see the games. The Padres have to find some way to exert pressure on all sides to get their games on Time Warner Cable, AT&T U-Verse and maybe even Dish Network as well as Cox and Direct TV.

Just think of the goodwill the owners would achieve if they suddenly announced the games of the season’s final weeks would be available to 100 percent of the county’s televisions.

The fan experience at Petco Park can be improved, both on the field and off. Announce a date when the new video board will be in place. And make a decision on the dimensions at Petco Park. The question has been studied for eight years. Time to act.

But perhaps the best thing about the new owners is that they are neither John Moores nor Jeff Moorad. There are no ties to the past in this new partnership.

Put Moores and Moorad in the rearview mirror as quickly as possible. There is little from either regime that is held in high regard by the fans — your customers.